advent ritual 2018 - sisters of mercy · as the holders of the memories, traditions, culture and...

Advent Ritual 2018

Image: Wise Women Also Came © Jan Richardson

Images removed

due to Copyright restriction

http://sanctuaryofwomen.com/blog/womens-christmas-2018-the-path-we-make-by-dreaming/

Wise women also came, seeking no directions, no permission from any king. They came by their own authority, their own desire, their own longing. Wise women also came, and they brought useful gifts:

water for labour’s washing, fire for warm illumination, a blanket for swaddling. Wise women also came, at least three of them, holding Mary in the labour, crying out with her in the birth pangs, breathing ancient blessings into her ear.

Excerpt from Wise Women Also Came © Jan Richardson. janrichardson.com.

2 Advent Ritual 2018

Acknowledgement of Country

Gwen Doan rsm

We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we live, work and gather. We pay our respects to Elders, past, present and emerging, as the holders of the memories, traditions, culture and spiritual wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across the nation. All: In the spirit of reconciliation,

partnership and mutual respect, we will continue to work together to shape a society which responds to the needs and aspirations of all who call Australia home.

Welcome


Into the Quiet (Liam Lawton)

Into the quiet God calls you, calls you each by name. Into the quiet, God calls you. Enter God’s dwelling, God’s love foretelling on this day of days. (repeat)

Introduction

Catherine Reuter rsm

Advent is a season of deep memory, a time when we are called to hear again the ancient stories of the God who has journeyed with us from the beginning, and who, in the fullness of time, took on flesh, and came to walk in this world with us. This morning, we have the opportunity to gather in the season of Advent to reflect on:


Madonna Josey rsm

~ the voice crying out in the wilderness calling for new ways of seeing and living; ~ a young Jewish woman surprised by a heavenly visitation; ~ the Word enfleshed, living among us, a light shining in the darkness; ~ and three wise ones setting off from afar following a star, gifting the child.

Into the Quiet (Liam Lawton)

Into the quiet God calls you, calls you each by name. Into the quiet, God calls you. Enter God’s dwelling, God’s love foretelling on this day of days. (repeat)


Lighting of the Candle

Catherine Reuter rsm As we set our feet on our annual pilgrimage through Advent to Christmas and beyond we light a candle for all bearers of the Good News – prophets, saints, ordinary women and men, who, throughout the ages, have carried the light of grace and truth and placed it into our hands. All: May we who now carry

this Sacred Story journey with courage, hope and joy.

Candle lit at each table and passed hand to hand as we pause to remember and give thanks

for those who carried the light to us.


An Offering of Reflections

Catherine Reuter rsm Today we offer reflections that may draw you into the mystery and possibility of this season.

Take time to look at the offerings, which are the work of Jan Richardson (artist, poet and ordained minister).

Each reflection is composed of an image, verses of scripture, focussing words and a poem.

Choose 1or 2 of the offerings to reflect upon in silence for 25 minutes.

Enter into this time in the way that works best for you, at your table or elsewhere.

You may wish to record your reflections in the space provided.


This will be followed by a time of sharing with your table companions.

Reflection 1

John the Baptiser

Image: Testify to the Light © Jan Richardson

http://janrichardsonimages.com/details.php?gid=60&pid=561


There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.

(John 1:6,7) The gift that God holds out to us in this season is to carry the light, yes, but also to see in the dark and shadows a presence that guides the way.

It is no small thing to bear witness to the light when everything seems dark. We reflect on that light that finds its ways into the unlikeliest places, the light the causes us (like John the Baptizer) to testify to its presence in the deepest shadows.

It matters that we hold the light for one another. It matters that we bear witness to the Light that holds us all, that we testify to this Light that shines its infinite love and mercy on us across oceans, across borders, across time.

In this Advent time, may we bear this light for one another, and may Christ our Light go with us and illumine our way.

Who holds the light for you?


In this season, who might need you to hold the light for them in acts of love and grace?

Blessed Are You Who Bear the Light © Jan Richardson. janrichardson.com.

Blessed are you who bear the light in unbearable times, who testify to its endurance amid the unendurable, who bear witness to its persistence when everything seems in shadow and grief. Blessed are you in whom the light lives, in whom

the brightness blazes - your heart a chapel, an altar where in the deepest night can be seen the fire that shines forth in you in unaccountable faith in stubborn hope in love that illumines every broken thing it finds.


My Reflections



Reflection 2

Gabriel and Mary

Image: Gabriel and Mary © Jan Richardson

http://www.janrichardsonimages.com/details.php?gid=72&pid=429


The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town called Nazareth,

to a virgin betrothed to man named Joseph, and the virgin’s name was Mary.

(Luke 1:26) When Mary says ‘let it be’ to the archangel, it is an act of radical surrender. She offers her ‘yes’ not with the meek passivity that history has so often ascribed to her; this kind of surrender is born not of weakness but of a daring strength within her and a stunning grace that shows up to sustain her. Mary’s surrender is deliberate, the choice of a woman ready to give herself to the sacred with such abandon that she agrees, with intention, to give up every last plan she had for her life. Mary’s audacious ‘yes’ propels her on a path almost completely devoid of signposts or trails left by others; she chooses a road utterly unlike any she had ever imagined for herself. What must it have been like to walk a way she could hardly perceive, while carrying within herself


- in her heart and womb and bones - a light unlike any the world had ever seen? What must it have been like for the archangel who witnessed Mary’s ‘yes’?

Gabriel’s Annunciation © Jan Richardson. janrichardson.com.

For a moment I hesitated on the threshold. For the space of a breath I paused, unwilling to disturb her last ordinary moment, knowing that the next step would cleave her life: that this day would slice her story in two, dividing all the days before

from all the ones to come. The artists would later depict the scene: Mary dazzled by the archangel, her head bowed in humble assent, awed by the messenger who condescended to leave paradise to bestow such an honour upon a woman, and mortal.


Yet I tell you it was I who was dazzled, I who found myself agape when I came upon her - reading, at the loom, in the kitchen, I cannot now recall; only that the woman before me - blessed and full of grace long before I called her so - shimmered with how completely she inhabited herself, inhabited the space around her, inhabited the moment that hung between us. I wanted to save her from what I had been sent to say. Yet when the time came,

when I had stammered the invitation (history would not record the sweat on my brow, the pounding of my heart; would not note that I said Do not be afraid to myself as much as to her) it was she who saved me - her first deliverance - her Let it be not just declaration to the Divine but a word of solace, of soothing, of benediction for the angel in the doorway who would hesitate one last time - just for the space of a breath torn from his chest - before wrenching


himself away from her radiant consent,

her beautiful and awful yes.

My Reflections

http://www.janrichardsonimages.com/details.php?gid=72&pid=429


Reflection 3

Christmas Eve

Image: This Luminous Darkness © Jan Richardson



In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . . . What has come into being

in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

(Prologue of John’s Gospel)

This is how John tells the Christmas story in his gospel: there is no manger, no inn to be turned away from; there are no angels, no shepherds, no wise men. John leaves these matters to others. John pares away the Christmas story to its essence:

The Word. Light. Life. Dwelling among us.

In the flesh. Glory and grace and truth. In the spirit of John the Evangelist we pray that we may tell the story, that we may testify to the light, that the Word may take flesh in us this day and in all the days to come.


We open ourselves, in these hours, in these days, to God radiantly illuminating us in ways we cannot see or feel or know. Let us open ourselves toward that light. May we open our eyes, our hands, our hearts to meet it. May we lean into the light that begins in the deepest dark, bearing itself into this world for us.

How the Light Comes © Jan Richardson. janrichardson.com.

I cannot tell you how the light comes. What I know is that it is more ancient than imagining. That it travels across an astounding expanse to reach us. That it loves searching out what is hidden, what is lost,

what is forgotten or in peril or in pain. That it has a fondness for the body, for finding its way toward flesh, for tracing the edges of form, for shining forth through the eye, the hand, the heart.


I cannot tell you how the light comes, but that it does. That it will.

That it works its way into the deepest dark that enfolds you, though it may seem long ages in coming or arrive in a shape you did not foresee.

And so may we this day turn ourselves toward it.

May we lift our faces to let it find us. May we bend our bodies to follow the arc it makes. May we open and open more and open still to the blessed light that comes.


My Reflections



Reflection 4

The Magi

Image: By Another Road © Jan Richardson



And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod,

they left for their own country by another road. (Matthew 2.12)

The Christmas season ends with Epiphany, a feast day in which the early church celebrated Jesus’ brilliant manifestation (epiphaneia in Greek, also translated as “appearing”) not only to the Magi but also to the world through his birth, baptism, and first recorded miracle at the wedding at Cana. Eastern Christianity maintains this multifaceted celebration of Epiphany, while we in the West focus primarily on remembering and celebrating the arrival of the Magi, those mysterious and devoted Wise Ones who travelled far to welcome the Christ and offer their gifts. As we travel toward Epiphany and savour the final days of Christmas, this is a good time to ponder where we are in our journey. As we cross into the coming year, where do you find yourself on the path? What direction do you feel drawn to go in during the coming weeks and months?


Is there anything you need to let go of - or to find - in order to take the next step? In the coming months, what gift do you most need to offer, that only you can give?

Blessing of the Magi © Jan Richardson. janrichardson.com.

There is no reversing this road. The path that bore you here goes in one direction only, every step drawing you down a way by which you will not return. You thought arrival was everything, that your entire journey ended with kneeling in the place

you had spent all to find. When you laid down your gift, release came with such ease, your treasure tumbling from your hands in awe and benediction. Now the knowledge of your leaving comes like a stone laid over your heart, the familiar path closed


and not even the solace of a star to guide your way. You will set out in fear. You will set out in dream. But you will set out by that other road that lies in shadow and in dark. We cannot show you the route that will take you home; that way is yours

and will be found in the walking. But we tell you, you will wonder at how the light you thought you had left behind goes with you, spilling from your empty hands, shimmering beneath your homeward feet, illuminating the road with every step you take.


My Reflections

Sharing

Catherine Reuter rsm You are invited to entrust your reflections to your table companions for about 15 minutes.



Prayer Response

Catherine Reuter rsm

The timeless message of Advent can be beautifully and powerfully personal, but is never just for us alone. All:

The Word comes to us with hope, with grace, with love, and takes flesh in us for the life of the world. In us, may Christ continue to be born,

in this and every season.

Gifting of our 2019 Mercy Calendar

Our special thanks to: the Sisters at Nudgee who invited Maree Hutchinson into a quiet space in their garden; Maree who sees with the eyes of her heart and created the images; Mary Lawson who sourced the sacred words which will accompany us each month, and who, with Gaëlle Rahmé, edited and prepared the calendar for print

Celebration of Thanks for

Veronica Ekerick rsm, Patricia Kirchner rsm,

Mary Lawson rsm, Mary Pescott rsm and Catherine Reuter rsm

Brisbane Sisters of Mercy Congregation Leadership Team

2013 - 2018

28 Celebration of Thanks 2018

Maria Sullivan rsm Catherine, Patricia, Mary, Veronica and Mary, today we celebrate the myriad ways your ministry of leadership has been expressed within and among us.

Collage of Memories

Naming our thanks

Maria Sullivan rsm

Across the past five years each of you has shaped and gifted our journey with the generous sharing of significant and differing gifts. For this we give thanks:


Sandra Loth rsm

For empathy, respect and intuitive hearts. (Pause)

For vision, courage and challenge. (Pause) All: We give thanks with grateful hearts.

Margaret King rsm

For openness, integrity and risk-taking. (Pause)

For enthusiasm, creativity and playfulness. (Pause) All: We give thanks with grateful hearts.

Jo Dooley rsm

For struggle, resolve and patient endurance. (Pause)

For compassion, encouragement and generosity of spirit. (Pause) All: We give thanks with grateful hearts.


Jill Stringer rsm

For humility, deep listening and discernment. (Pause) For welcoming, nurturing and encouraging our gifts. (Pause) All: We give thanks with grateful hearts.

Chris Watt rsm

For prayerfulness, fragility and forgiveness given and received. (Pause) For the aloneness, the unknown and the unseen.

(Pause) All: We give thanks with grateful hearts.

Maria Sullivan rsm In the quiet space of our hearts, we remember and give thanks that we have been drawn


by God’s Spirit into the Heart of Mercy through your leadership and that of Pope Francis. (Pause)

Words of Appreciation Mary O’Donoghue rsm

Gifting Blessing

This Day We Say Grateful A Sending Blessing

Mary Lawson rsm It is a strange thing to be so bound and so released all in the same moment, to feel the heart open wide and wider still even as it turns to take its leave.


On this day, let us say this is simply the way love moves in its ceaseless spiralling, turning us toward one another, then sending us into what waits for us with arms open wide in welcome and in hope.

Mary Johnson rsm On this day, in this place where you have poured yourself out, where you have been emptied and filled and emptied again,


may you be aware more than ever of what your heart has opened to here,

what it has tended and welcomed here,

where it has broken in love and in grief,

where it has given and received blessing in the unfathomable mystery that moves us, undoes us, and remakes us finally for joy.

This day may you know this joy in full measure.


This day may you know this blessing that gathers you in and sends you forth but will not forget you.

All:

This day we say ‘grace’,

this day we say ‘grateful’,

this day we say ‘blessing’, this day we release you in God’s keeping and hold you in gladness and love.

© Jan Richardson. janrichardson.com.


Maria Sullivan rsm: We sing now of the timeless circle of grace and mercy that enfolds and encompasses us in every moment.

Song

The Circle of Mercy (Jeannette Goglia rsm)

In Mercy, we touch the hearts of those who are in mis’ry. In Mercy, we’re touched by them and feel their strength and courage. In Mercy, we heal the pain of those who are in sorrow. In Mercy, we’re healed by them and see the face of hope.

For the circle of Mercy is timeless It is spirit of life itself! Which roots us in faith, and lifts us in hope, And holds us in God’s loving care. And holds us in God’s loving care.


In Mercy, we welcome those the world has left rejected. In Mercy, we’re drawn within the loving heart of God. In Mercy, we forgive the incompleteness in another. In Mercy, our sins are healed and we are whole again.


In Mercy, the Spirit-faith will root us in God’s presence. In Mercy, the Spirit-hope will lift us out of doubt. In Mercy, the love of God will be our joy in living. In Mercy, we join with one another on our journey.



Acknowledgements

Abbott, M 2001 Sparks of the Cosmos Media Com S.A.

Chittister, Joan

2008 Sparks of Advent Light Bentevision Erie, PA 2009 The Liturgical Year Thomas Nelson Nashville

C, Duffy Mission and Spirituality Enewsletter of The Broken Bay Institute. No 26, 2015

Emmaus Productions Liturgy Planning, Advent 2014, 2016, 2017

Pope Francis

Misericordiae Vultus, 11 April 2015

Angelus Reflection on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. December 8, 2016

General Audience 2016

Kozak, Janet and Pat Schaffren, More Than Words: Prayer and Ritual for Inclusive Communities 1986 Kozak Pub.

© Erica Marshall 2008 Ritual Prayer


Rupp, J 2000 Out of the Ordinary Ave Maria Press Notre Dame

Watts, T and Gabrielle Lord, Sanctuary 2005 Willow Pub.

Wiederkehr, M 1991 Season of Your Heart Harper San Francisco

Songs used with permission:

@2003, ABC Music Co., All rights reserved. Used with permission under ONE LICENSE #A-62453

Art Work & Blessings used with permission:


https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=UTF8&field-author=Janet%3B+Kozak%2C+Pat%3B+Schaffren&search-alias=books&text=Janet%3B+Kozak%2C+Pat%3B+Schaffren&sort=relevancerank

Celebrating Community & Table

Loving God, bless all gathered here today as we come together in friendship and celebration. Bless those who prepared this meal and those who serve it. Bless all who have contributed to making today a special occasion. May the meal that we share remind us of Your gracious faithful care and abundance. Place in our hearts the desire to make a difference in the lives of those who do not experience community, friendship, food and peace, especially this Christmas. Amen.

advent ritual 2018 - sisters of mercy · as the holders of the memories, traditions, culture and...

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